Among the most popular horror franchises still running, The Conjuring has delivered plenty of scares since the movie of the same title started it all in 2013. Revolving around the work of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Conjuring universe includes eight feature-length movies. In addition to the three main Conjuring films, the franchise has established recurring storylines based on Annabelle and The Nun. Director James Wan’s The Conjuring marked the beginning of Ed and Lorraine’s adventures with the supernatural, introducing the fantastic duo of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in the lead roles. Although every movie in the Conjuring franchise has produced its fair share of jump scares and terrifying scenes, the first film is widely considered the most frightening.
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It should come as no surprise that the Conjuring franchise’s scariest scene lies in the very first movie, as its resounding success paved the way for all of its sequels and spinoffs. Loosely based on a true story, The Conjuring‘s events also inspired The Amityville Horror over three decades earlier. In the film, Roger and Carolyn Perron and their five daughters move into a new house in 1970s Rhode Island. The family begins to witness paranormal events, compelling them to call Ed and Lorraine, who later determine that a demonic entity living in the house has possessed Carolyn and will force her to sacrifice her children to the devil. The Warrens perform an intense exorcism to rid the family of this evil spirit. The Conjuring‘s most horrifying scene occurs during one of the first nights the Perron family spends in their new home. Often referred to as the “hide and clap” scene, this bloodcurdling sequence continues to scare audiences.
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The Conjuring‘s “Hide and Clap” Scene Is Horrifying
One night, Carolyn is awoken by strange noises coming from the cellar. After she wanders around a bit, the cellar door swings open on its own. Rather than going down into the spooky cellar, Carolyn yells that she’s going to lock in whoever’s lurking down there, but the door suddenly slams shut behind her. Carolyn tumbles to the bottom of the stairs, and after a few moments of eerie silence, a ball is tossed across the cellar floor. Panicking, Carolyn dashes up the stairs toward the locked door while the cellar’s only light bulb explodes, leaving her alone in the pitch dark. Carolyn screams for help to no avail and lights a match. Out of the clear blue, a child’s voice says, “Want to play hide and clap?” A couple of seconds later, a pair of clapping hands appears beside Carolyn, and she screams while pounding on the door.
The Conjuring‘s “hide and clap” scene is brilliant because it relies entirely on a terrifying atmosphere rather than imagery. Slamming doors and a random pair of hands aren’t visually creepy on their own, but the sequence’s dim lighting, stirring score, and slow-building tension generate a truly hair-raising viewing experience. “Hide and clap” contains some classic horror movie jump scares, and they are extremely well-executed. Far too often, the horror genre overuses jump scares, dulling their effectiveness. While most jumps scares in today’s horror blockbusters are more intended to surprise audiences than actually frighten them, The Conjuring‘s “hide and clap” scene flawlessly achieves both.
2013’s The Conjuring Is Still the Franchise’s Best (and Scariest) Movie
Unfortunately, none of the Conjuring‘s successors have lived up to the original film. 2016’s The Conjuring 2 and 2017’s Annabelle: Creation represent the most worthy follow-ups to 2013’s The Conjuring, but even their scares fail to reach the same heights as the first movie. Other subsequent titles such as 2014’s Annabelle, 2018’s The Nun, and 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It feature a few spooky moments, but at times, their stories devolve into ridiculousness.
Genuinely suspenseful and eventually outright horrifying from one scene to the next, The Conjuring still stands as the best and brightest the horror universe has to offer. Wan, whose other horror movies include Saw, Insidious, and Malignant, has cemented himself as a master of the genre, and The Conjuring is easily his best film. The Conjuring franchise remains highly enjoyable despite its shortcomings. Set to conclude the famed movie series, The Conjuring: Last Rites will release in 2025. Horror fans should be excited to see how Ed and Lorraine’s story ends and to discover if the franchise can return to its former glory.
The Conjuring is currently available to stream on Max.
